Sandy hits Wall Street’s vault

Portions of the headquarters of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. in Manhattan remain underwater leading to the concern that trillions of dollars of stock certificates are ruined.

The group manages “important parts of the US trading infrastructure,” according to The Financial Times. This includes securing 1.3 million certificates for shares and bonds – all paper – and all stored in the company’s vault, which is currently underwater.

While the certificates were backed up with electronic records, the cost of reissuing them could be staggering. The Times’ story reports the cost to reissue lost certificates following the 2001 terrorist attacks was almost $300 million.